leaping arches

[Richard365]

I bought 4  Smart / Pixel RGB LED Strip 30 LEDs/m 10 Pixels/ (16ft-6in/5 meter Roll) - 12v / 2811 . Since they where 16.6 feet long. I was assuming I would have 4 arches  that big. Looks like most people only make 10 foot arches. I bought 1 in. x 100 ft. White PEX Pipe. Looks like there is no way I can make a 16' foot arch. i was going to mount them on top of the 3' fence. 

  My other choice would be make two 8' leaping arches. I don't feel like cutting the pixel strips, so was going to run one strip  threw two arches.

 

[jtomason]

I ordered 9' sections of 2" polyethylene tubing from McMaster-Carr.   I set it in rebar caps from Home Depot that I mounted to steel strips (70" apart) and used hose clamps to keep the tubing on the rebar caps.   I cut the pixel strip to length (actually a little longer to have some come out of the ends and get siliconed into place).  They came out and look awesome. 

https://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/122/142/=15p3d2h 

I would think you could adapt that to a 16' arch, but if you are talking about 16' from base to base, that's more than 16' of tubing/pixels.  

 

 

[Santas Helper]

1 hour ago, Richard365 said:

Looks like most people only make 10 foot arches. I bought 1 in. x 100 ft. White PEX Pipe. Looks like there is no way I can make a 16' foot arch. i was going to mount them on top of the 3' fence. 

Nonsense, make them puppies 16'.

But I would suggest what jtomason used. I am using the same type of pipe and got my other supplies from Lowes.

Mine are 16' plus a few inches longer.

http://vid245.photobucket.com/albums/gg65/frightnight_photos/Toms videos/MOV09284_zpst6yaux8r.mp4

The last pic is a video of them running in the garage.

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by Santas Helper

[Richard365]

I tried to make it into a loop, stupid thing just kept on bending over, how you make your stay straight up? cut mine 20' each, because of the 4' bushes they will be behind.  that give me 2' of empty space so you would only miss 2 feet of arch, nobody would notice. try keep stuff close to house or in backyard, since there year i had 2 teenages drop kick my 46" x 46" talking santa. I had a idea who it might be, just knocked on parents door ask if they seen 2 kids run bye. made sure they knew I carry.  took a day to fix with black electric tape.

[Richard365]

I just notice i have those iceicles also. Not as water proof as they tell you.  had to modify the wire, with the wind and the wire tied to the tree branch, he wires brook lose on the LED board, had to resolder and reinsulate. So i made a service loop and ty wrapped the wire to the iceicle so when the wind blow, it pulled on the ty wrap not the wire.. I used laser on the tree, have 2 different kinds, one from around $200 , not the 29.99 ones in the store. lasers look alot better on the tree branches than on the side of the house.

 I did the same thing with my CCR mega tree, made it 20 feet tall , 4' missing at bottom you cant tell do to the 4' bushes.  I first tied 2 ten foot section of fence post, but it started to bend and first wind storm we had blow it over.  then had to go to ridig pipe and that fixed that problem. I had 18" stakes in the ground, but they still got pulled out, so i tied the mega tree to the fence. Now i would lose tree and fence if a bad wind storm comes..lol..

[Mr. P]

The one inch pex you are using will be too flimsy for the 20' length without some kind of support. 

[Santas Helper]

1 hour ago, Richard365 said:

I tried to make it into a loop, stupid thing just kept on bending over, how you make your stay straight up? cut mine 20' each, because of the 4' bushes they will be behind.  that give me 2' of empty space so you would only miss 2 feet of arch, nobody would notice. 

Well I'm using the 2"  High-Pressure/Vacuum Polyethylene Semi-Clear Tubing as the link above shows.

This stuff is stout and holds in place really well with 4' rebar (1' in the ground) on each end.

This is why I mentioned about suggesting using this stuff for 16' arches. It's sturdy and lights up very well.

You could support your pex pipe with rebar or taller ground stakes if you wanted to keep the pex pipe stable. With the rebar/stakes behind the arches and a wire attached to the rebar/stake and pipe. You can't see any of the support material from the street.

[Mega Arch]

4 hours ago, Santas Helper said:

Well I'm using the 2"  High-Pressure/Vacuum Polyethylene Semi-Clear Tubing as the link above shows..... With the rebar/stakes behind the arches and a wire attached to the rebar/stake and pipe. You can't see any of the support material from the street.

What you do see from the street is simply amazing. The pictures posted above look great and all - but in person was priceless. Very nice addition to your show. You had to have 16 ft Mega Arches though. With that 33 ft Mega Tower of a tree - anything less wouldn't have fit at all.

Nicely done Tom!

 

[Santas Helper]

11 minutes ago, Mega Arch said:

What you do see from the street is simply amazing. The pictures posted above look great and all - but in person was priceless. Very nice addition to your show. You had to have 16 ft Mega Arches though. With that 33 ft Mega Tower of a tree - anything less wouldn't have fit at all.

Nicely done Tom!

Thank you very much Daniel. I really do appreciate your inputs and suggestions.